An ethical supermarket has unveiled ambitious plans to create a regional chain of up to 10 stores within the next five years.

hiSbe has had a successful first 18 months after opening its pilot store in up-and-coming York Place, Brighton.

The sisters behind the store are now looking for the right location for a second branch, with Blatchington Road in Hove a potential location.

Amy and Ruth Anslow are looking for units of 3,000 sq ft or larger. The second store is to be part of a wider plan to open as many as 10 stores in Sussex, mostly concentrated around the Brighton and Hove area.

Amy said: “There’s been a lot of calls for us to go to Hove so we’re loosely working towards that.

"We also have a few other areas in Brighton in mind.

"Blacthington Road is somewhere that comes up a lot as a potential area.

“The biggest challenge is finding somewhere large enough. Most commercial premises are very, very small. It also needs to be in a residential area or close to a residential area that isn’t too expensive.

“Part of the shopping experience at hiSbe is having the space to walk around.

“It will really depend on where customers want us – it’s about pull rather than push.”

The social enterprise was founded on an ethos of responsible trading and ethical sourcing.

The name comes from “how it Should be” in the food industry.

Amy and Ruth quit their flying jobs to found hiSbe, which was three years in the making, and received a £20,000 investment from Body Shop founder Gordon Roddick.

Overall, an impressive £200,000 was raised to open the store.

To make the expansion more seamless, the business has already put into place a non-hierarchical management structure.

Amy said: “The team is now self managing, with everybody having the authority to make decisions. It’s a pretty new concept and quite alien in retail, particularly food retail.

“Traditional management hierarchies just don’t fit with our model, which is about empowering our staff to run the store themselves, and also enables us to go on and open new stores.”